I’ve done a couple of projects with a monster theme now and I can’t get the cure little dudes out of my head. I decided to include a short tute for those who want to use/improve as needed and to share some of the things I learned about trying to take on a different type of machine with such a small project using difficult and stretchy materials and tight curves.

I hope you enjoy - thanks for looking and please let me know what you think!-Erika

2. Cut one each of outer material (I used a soft leather) and lining (I used short hair pink fur). Trim the inner layer approx. 1/8 narrower on all edges than outer layer.3. Take outer layer and fold up bottom edge to within ¼ inch of top of vertical side, right sides together, and stitch both sides with 1/8 inch seam allowance.4. Repeat with inner layer, but use ¼ inch seam allowance. Trim seams closely on both layers. Both case layers should be inside out.5. Hand sew on male part of small snap to right side of inner layer fabric centered and about 1” from edge of monster lip curve.6. Use open are to turn one of the case layers right side out now and place the two case layers right sides together. 7. Sew along straight front edge of case and up along curves (approx. where red Xs are located). Leave open between red Xs.

8. Trim seams closely and turn layers into finished orientation (right side of outer layer is facing out and right side of inner layer is inside outer layer).9. Now fold monster face down over top and press snap head into fabric to make a faint mark where the other snap part will be sewed on. Sew on other snap part (female) onto right side of outer layer (should sit approx. ¾ inch down from edge of case).10. Take a needle and thread and sew a couple of stitches through both layers to tack the lower corners of inner layer down to the lower corners of outer layer.11. Top stitch a very narrow (1/8 inch) around top edge and curves up to red Xs. 12. Fold case in half to make a slight crease in the center of outer layer and attach eyes approx. ¾ inch from lip edge. The closer together you put the eyes, the goofier and cuter the monster ends up looking – if you have the googly eyes that move, that works even better. I used simple shank buttons from JoAnns that look like eyeballs (see below).

13. Now comes the *fun* part! Take a needle and thread and baste along the open edge of the monster lip curves for outer layer and repeat with second thread for the inner layer. Pull both threads enough to gather to make lips “curl inward” slightly. Tie both threads at ends to hold curled shape. If you are using normal fabric, you can simply press the shapes down at this point. If you use leather for one of the layers, squeeze shape tightly between fingers or put a weight down on the lips to force the leather to hold the curled shape.14. Cut two fangs out of white “foamies” craft foam (1 inch long and 1/ 2 inch wide) and place fangs in between curled-in outer and inner monster lip layers.15. Top stitch narrow edge slowly around curled-in monster lips to attach fangs and close open section of case.

16. Cut out strip of long fake fur of contrasting color for eyebrows (I used lime green) approx. 3 inches by ½ inch. Slip stitch top edge to bottom edge lengthwise to create a “tube” of fur. Tack one edge down to the right of the right eyeball through both case layers. Tack the other end down to the left of the left eyeball through both layers. Tack center down just above center front between two eyeballs. Make two more tacks – one above the right eye and one above the left eye. I was lazy – you can obviously make more stitches to make it more secure, but I don’t typically thrash my eyeglass cases around, so I didn’t.

LESSONS LEARNED:A. This was my first project with leather and I found that my old 1927 Industrial Singer blew right through it like butter, but the lighter the leather, the more stretch typically, so plan on some headaches with seam rippling unless you have a machine that can handle leather and differential feed.B. In retrospect, it was rather retarded of me to stitch the two case layers together along the easy straight-aways and leave the edge finishing for the most difficult curves…I actually ended up having to slip stitch the lip layers closed because the machine was so tough to slow down around the curves and the leather stretched all over the place (notice crappy-looking hand stitches in close-up above). I would suggest stitching curved in layers separately and then stitching together, so that edges can’t escape. The fangs were tough to attach in the typical manner since the edge of the fang was curved to match the lip curve – any suggestions on a better approach would be most welcomed.

Awesome, but sorry about the tiny pics - I'm going back to hosting the images on our home website - I seem to get bizarre results using the craftster hosted process. Oh well - I'll enlarge so the closeups are better - his face is my favorite part - he looks abslutely insane and keeps me smiling. You can actually wave the case back and forth violently and see his hair flopping back and forth. Thanks for the feedback!-Erika

MODIFIED POST: I reposted used our website to host the pics - should be viewable now!